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Left 4 Dead : "2009 is the year of the log"

Be sure to join Armadeaddon chat [url=steam://friends/joinchat/103582791429532423]CLICK ME [/url]before you play L4D. It's a great way to find games. Ask for group invites in the chat; they will get lost in the thread!

2009 International Year of the Log
All Hail Log

Suds is pretty jawesome

Left 4 Dead is a multiplayer cooperative survival horror shooter in development by Valve, based on the Source engine. There are two sides, the Survivors and Infected. Four players control the four Survivors, working their way through campaigns in rural and urban areas, fighting off dozens of the AI-controlled infected (fast, 28 Days Later style zombies). On top of the regular zombies, there are four player-controlled boss zombies all with unique powers for causing chaos. This mix of the dozens of AI-controlled infected zombies and the boss zombies makes for an entirely fresh co-op experience. - Left4Dead411

Send a friend invite to A PA L4D Group to be entered into this group. We'll use this gamertag as a central hub for the 360, just like the steam group. I doubt we'll exceed 100, but if we do we'll figure that out when we get there.

Gamertag and Steam ID Collections

Kris_xK is handling invites for the 360 A PA L4D Group friend list. PM him about the 360 version ONLY please if there is any trouble with your friend invitation to PA L4D.

Armadeaddon is the PA L4D Steam group. Just join the group chat to ask and someone in the group can invite you.

Meet The Boss Infected

The Tank
This guy is a powerhouse. When he appears his own music plays and it is very distinctive. Don't be fooled by his size, anything you can climb onto he can climb on to too. He likes to rip chunks of the ground out from under him and throw them in your general direction. Concentrate your fire and whatever you do.. don't stop moving if you are the same level as him. Molotovs are an effective strategy as the Tank will burn until he dies.

The Boomer
This fat fuck likes nothing more than to waddle up to you and vomit all over you. Now you may think that is disgusting by itself, but this bile that now covers you attracts the horde of infected. So if you are vomited on try and get to a semi defendable position. This can be easier said than done as the bile impairs your vision. He also like to explode when shot, showering people nearby with the same bile. If you find yourself in close proximity to one then first bash him away, retreat and then shoot.

The Hunter
I hate these guys. They emit a scream when near so you can tell when they are close. These chaps like to jump incredible distances onto survivors, pinning them and then proceeding to rape their face ( not literally ). When pinned a survivor can only be saved by another survivor removing the Hunter. He can also climb and jump onto walls so if you hear one be aware he may not be on ground level. Shooting or meleeing the Hunter during his animation will free the survivor. You can't hurt the victim with gunfire but don't go all rambo because you may end up hitting them after the Hunter is gone.

The Smoker
If you offered this guy an ice cream from 50 feet away then he would have no problem taking the first lick right then and there. For you see, this guy has a massive tongue. One that he uses to ensnare survivors and drag them in. The only way to free the survivor is kill the smoker or shoot his tongue. This one also likes to spawn on rooftops and drag you upwards, so be aware. On death he emits a cloud of noxious smoke that impairs vision as you pass through it, giving him his name. Shooting or meleeing the victim will free him from the tongue without hurting them. If you are close enough save your ammo, if you aren't then shoot.

The Witch
Oh boy. The first time you encounter one of these it can be truly chilling. Even subsequent encounters can do so. First you hear crying. Then her oh so creepy music plays. Then you see her. Oh, she doesn't look that bad, just sitting there, crying her eyes out. Don't be fooled, for this lady absolutely hates noise, lights and touching. The best idea is to avoid her completely, flashlights off and trying to be as quiet as possible. When disturbed she homes in on the one who disturbed her and rips them a new one. Coordinated players can take her down before she harms anyone, but at times this can be risky.

Console Commands

AkimboEG provided this link from Left 4 Dead 411 for all the known console commands. Thanks dude.

Password for all is Wang. If you want your server added to this list, please PM me as it'll probably get lost in the thread.

Alabastar Slim currently also has a dedicated server running for the demo.

The IP is alabaster.bounceme.net

You can connect with the console or if you find it in the server browser. There isn't a password but there is a unique search_index key so that it won't be populated by people who aren't specifically looking for it.

PS job's vs. server can now be joined from the lobby. The lobby host has to go into console and type sv_search_key wang, and start the server search as usual. If nobody's already on job's, then you should automatically be directed to his server.
Type sv_search_key to unload the 'job's only' filter.

Survival Suggestions

Friendly fire is ON at all times. Please try to remember this when moving around other survivors. Accidents are bound to happen but most can be avoided by hugging walls and crouching if you decide to take the lead.

Melee is your friend. This can give you some much needed breathing room and also seperates nearby infected from you so fellow survivors can shoot them easier. You can also melee in the middle of reloading, so when in doubt, melee.

You can heal other survivors with med kits. Simply stand next to them with the medkit equipped and use your secondary function key, whatever that may be. This also applies to pain pills, which you hand to them. Be aware that doing so will switch whatever that survivor is holding for the pills. So try to hand them over when the survivor isn't in a combat situation. For some reason infected don't die if you point a pot of pills at them.

More info on each boss zombie is above if you haven't read it already.

Hunters should use their right click attack unless they want to distract or pin, as it does more damage, hits multiple targets, and you stay completely silent when standing.

Melee will free a smoker-constricted team member.

Team members cannot take friendly fire damage when pinned or constricted.

I've done some experimenting and have worked out scoring in VS mode
Basically just kicked the bots and used gascans to hurt myself then noclip straight to the safe room, it was all pretty smooth sailing cept towards the end the director started spawning tanks right infront of the door, anyways

VS mode scoring and you! (in regards to health) AmendedEvery 2 points of health is worth 1 point so making it to a saferoom with full health is worth 50

50 is the max points you can get per survivor (Full health with medpack or without doesn't matter it's still 50)
There is also no bonus for making it in with perfect health
100 health gives 50 points, 96 health still gives 48 points

An unused healthpack is worth the amount of points it would've healed for (Thanks Mars)
- Going into a saferoom with 4 health and no medpack gave me 2 points
- Going into a saferoom with 5 health and a medpack gave me 40 points
- Going into a saferoom with 49 health and a medpack gave me 44 points
- Going into a saferoom with 83 health and a medpack gave me 48 points
- Going into a saferoom with 17 health and a medpack gave me 41 points

Pills are worth 12-13 points
- At full health with pills I got 50 points
- At 5hp with pills I got 15 points
- Using the pills at 5hp (So I jumped to 54 including temp health) gave me 14points (It would've only ticked down 1or 2 before I got the door closed)

Normal infected do 2 from the front, 1 from the back. Hunter claw does 10, always, direction does not matter. BoomerSmoker claw does 2 damage always. Pounce is 5 per tick, so 20 'hits' takes down a full health person. Flaming pounce is harder to tell, it's like 5 per tick + a handful of change every hit from fire damage, but it seemed you go down in 9 'hits', so it's ~double damage. Flaming smoker has no benefit, and the smoker does 5 per tick as well, but the smoker 'hits' are slower than the hunters.
If you are incapped regular infected do ~10 per hit. Unsure about special infected claw damage if you are incapped, though.
Tank goes down in about 24 point blank shots from the autoshotty, but at a medium range the autoshotty only did like, 50 damage per shot, so that'd be ~12 clips. Hunting rifle does 90 per shot, M16 does ~1200 per clip.

The Achievements

For those who care about achievements, here they are for your viewing pleasure.

Awww. (log)

Spoiler:

Kupi draws a log!

Spoiler:

Problems with soundlooping, and you have an Nvidia graphics card
Don't update your drivers past 178.
Open the console, type mat_queue_mode. If its 1 or 2 switch it to -1 by typing mat_queue_mode -1
You can also try Go to processes in the task manager, right click Left4dead.exe, select Affinity, uncheck CPU 0

Someone needs to make a christmas themed mod, where all the zombies have santa caps, and when the tank comes it plays Santa Claus is Coming, and when you are by a witch it plays something like Silent Night, and when you toss a molotov it plays Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, and when a horde is coming it plays Let it Snow.

Tonight I kept hitting log and missing during the finale, so I hit a hay bale out of frustration. Instant incap of a survivor, then I hit log at the person going to help him up. Then I died. But it allowed Sladvan the smoker to grab a survivor as the APC showed, which pulled another survivor back to help him, which gave Sean Connery enough time as the tank to finish them off.

BH 3, and the tank is outside. It dodged a molotov, but there was a corner free of fire, and a very tiny strip of land that wasn't on fire that I could use to get to it. So I ran there to shoot at the tank, figuring he'd have to come through the fire to get me.

Well, he did, but I didn't run fast enough, and thus was cornered. I was also just starting to reload. So I did the absolute most wrong thing I could have done, I meleed him. Next thing I knew, I was free and running away from the corner, the tank was chasing me. I ran into a boomer, and it was all over for me.

Someone needs to make a christmas themed mod, where all the zombies have santa caps, and when the tank comes it plays Santa Claus is Coming, and when you are by a witch it plays something like Silent Night, and when you toss a molotov it plays Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, and when a horde is coming it plays Let it Snow.

Seriously. It would be amazing.

I could do the audio for that.

Not much else I can do in regards to this game seeing as now I'm home with the shitty Roadrunner and my ~100 ping.

Lucky bastards.

EDIT: And speaking of audio, question about music: you know that stuff that plays when you get a big old horde incoming, the actual "shit is HITTING THE FAN" music and not the prelude? Is that compiled from different waves all playing in sync? I've got a hankering to hear that music but can't find it in the files.

Not relevant to the discussion and generally a terrible article that promotes poor sportsmanship and greifing.

The closet during panic events is an exploit, not a 'predictable move done over and over because it is successful.' to paraphrase. The availability of an exploit to both sides in a competitive environment does not justify using the exploit.

Hiding in a closet and spamming melee is not an exploit. It's just a cheap strategy without an effective counter right now. There's no way Valve has never realized what closets like that can be used for, and putting one near a panic event is just bad map design.

Not relevant to the discussion and generally a terrible article that promotes poor sportsmanship and greifing.

The closet during panic events is an exploit, not a 'predictable move done over and over because it is successful.' to paraphrase. The availability of an exploit to both sides in a competitive environment does not justify using the exploit.

Hiding in a closet and spamming melee is not an exploit. It's just a cheap strategy without an effective counter right now. There's no way Valve has never realized what closets like that can be used for, and putting one near a panic event is just bad map design.

Yes. Closets aren't the problem, closet next to the elevator is a problem.

Hiding in a closet and spamming melee is not an exploit. It's just a cheap strategy without an effective counter right now. There's no way Valve has never realized what closets like that can be used for, and putting one near a panic event is just bad map design.

I'd argue that circumventing intended gameplay is an exploit. It is also bad level design, but so is walking on top of the fence in Dead Air to avoid the crane panic event.

Yes. Closets aren't the problem, closet next to the elevator is a problem.

This.

Gonna hafta disagree with you there. Its true that it isn't relevant, but thats because this isn't a competitive environment. In the case of a competitive environment, it is not only permitted but expected that the player use anything they can to their advantage.

By this logic competitions would never restrict character usage or have standardized controller/computer rules.

Multiple restrictions on character usage. I'll use Yoda as an example. Since you can't throw him he isn't allowed in tournament play because it would artificially alter the gameplay away from what is standard for SC4.

Infinites are also banned in this particular tournament, however I wouldn't expect that to be standard.

Why do people whine, and not just look up an equally effective counter-tactic online, like from other people who are really expert at whatever game? Does this kind of resource not exist, because L4D is a relatively new game?

Why do people whine, and not just look up an equally effective counter-tactic online, like from other people who are really expert at whatever game? Does this kind of resource not exist, because L4D is a relatively new game?

Considering that the whole point of the game is to survive, I really can't understand how people can be getting so pissed about this. I mean, if you and three other people are outnumbered a hundred to one by tireless bloodthirsty pissed-off-as-all-fuck mutants and you hear the collective scream of said hundreds of TBPOAAFMs as they come ripping for your position, what are you going to do? You're going to get your butts in the most defensable positions you can get yourself into, which in most cases happens to be a closet or a room with only one enterence.

Considering just how easy it is for a closet defense to go to hell during a finale and considering just how much of a small part of the overall game the finales play, I just don't see how people can get so worked up about this.

EDIT: GAH. I totally forgot to go and Rasterbate all those pictures I wanted to posterize before leaving college. Shit.

EDIT: And what's with those lights? That's not blinding, that's a god damn nuclear reaction going on in those flashlights.

Just had a vs. game where we dominated the other side. The second stage of No Mercy, we stopped them before they had managed to get to the kitchen right after you leave the safe house. One was killed literally a step outside the door by me and another was killed by a smoker when they tried to help him. Ridiculously fun.

Just had a vs. game where we dominated the other side. The second stage of No Mercy, we stopped them before they had managed to get to the kitchen right after you leave the safe house. One was killed literally a step outside the door by me and another was killed by a smoker when they tried to help him. Ridiculously fun.

Was that the pub stomp where we had a new round of survivors every map? hah. Subway level was hilarious... killed all 4 survivors before they got through the rubble right outside the safe room. I had Zoey smokered from full health till death as the rest of the team ran around boomered meleeing at the walls.

Hey, did I tell you guys the story about earlier today, when we killed all four survivors within like ten feet of the safe room on No Mercy...2, maybe? Or was it 1?

Anyway, we killed all the survivors within like ten feet of the safe room.

True story.

EDIT: Oh, and if you intend to quit (for whatever reason) it's generally customary to do so between rounds (and let them know) so your team has a chance to pick up a new person, not spectate and bitch at your teammates until the round has started making it difficult for them. This decreases the fun had by all, on both teams.

Just had a vs. game where we dominated the other side. The second stage of No Mercy, we stopped them before they had managed to get to the kitchen right after you leave the safe house. One was killed literally a step outside the door by me and another was killed by a smoker when they tried to help him. Ridiculously fun.

Was that the pub stomp where we had a new round of survivors every map? hah. Subway level was hilarious... killed all 4 survivors before they got through the rubble right outside the safe room. I had Zoey smokered from full health till death as the rest of the team ran around boomered meleeing at the walls.

That is the greatest part, nobody quit. They played every round, and every round went the same. One person was legitimately pissed off at us though.

Just so you don't forget about it, putting sv_search_key in the server config and removing sv_steamgroup_exclusive (you can keep sv_steamgroup) will allow people in a VERSUS lobby to connect to PA servers (provided they also use the sv_search_key). For some reason, servers default to campaign when hibernating (even if you put a versus map in the command startup). If you use sv_search_key, you can have all the organization of a lobby and all the fun of not wasting the money you paid for a gameserver AS LONG AS YOU HAVE THE CURRENT SRCDS SERVER BUILD. Hopefully this advice will become obsolete in the future. As far as I know, there is no other remaining way to change a PA server to vs. without console permission.

‮Marty: The future, it's where you're going?Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.

Kind of off topic, but after playing with a few PA guys tonight I have to say it's been a blast.

I was almost certain my lack of a mic would be at the very least crippling, if not get everybody pissed off at me, but that was actually going somewhat well. A mic'll still be handy when I get one, but at least I don't have to feel like I shouldn't bother playing at all untill I get one. (Partly because I wouldn't be able to use it too often, basically unless it's really late at night.)